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meagerness

 - 3 dictionary results

mea⋅ger

  [mee-ger]
Use meagerness in a Sentence
–adjective
1. deficient in quantity or quality; lacking fullness or richness; scanty; inadequate: a meager salary; meager fare; a meager harvest.
2. having little flesh; lean; thin: a body meager with hunger.
3. maigre.
Also, especially British, meagre.

Origin:
1300–50; ME megre < OF maigre < L macer lean

Related forms:
mea⋅ger⋅ly, adverb
mea⋅ger⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. See scanty. 2. gaunt, spare, skinny.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To meagerness
mea·ger also mea·gre   (mē'gər)   
adj.  

  1. Deficient in quantity, fullness, or extent; scanty.

  2. Deficient in richness, fertility, or vigor; feeble: the meager soil of an eroded plain.

  3. Having little flesh; lean.


[Middle English megre, thin, from Old French, from Latin macer; see māk- in Indo-European roots.]
mea'ger·ly adv., mea'ger·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

meager 
c.1300, "lean, thin, emaciated" (of persons or animals), from O.Fr. megre, maigre, from L. macrum (nom. macer) "lean, thin," from PIE *makro- (see macro-). Of material things (land, food, etc.) from 1501.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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